文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Crabs Mediate Interactions between Native and Invasive Salt Marsh Plants: A Mesocosm Study

作者：Zhang, Xiao-dong[1,2] Jia, Xin[3] Chen, Yang-yun[1] Shao, Jun-jiong[1] Wu, Xin-ru[1] Shang, Lei[1] Li, Bo[1]

第一作者：Zhang, Xiao-dong;张骁栋

通信作者：Li, B[1]

机构：[1]Fudan Univ, Coastal Ecosyst Res Stn Yangtze River Estuary, Key Lab Biodivers Sci & Ecol Engn, Inst Biodivers Sci,Minist Educ, Shanghai 200433, Peoples R China;[2]Chinese Acad Forestry, Inst Wetland Res, Key Lab Wetland Serv & Restorat, Beijing, Peoples R China;[3]Beijing Forestry Univ, Sch Soil & Water Conservat, Beijing, Peoples R China

年份：2013

卷号：8

期号：9

外文期刊名：PLOS ONE

收录：;Scopus(收录号：2-s2.0-84883347453);WOS:【SCI-EXPANDED(收录号:WOS:000324515600129)】；

基金：This research was financially supported by National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2013CB430404), National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30930019), and the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No. 10JC1400700 and 12XD1400500). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

语种：英文

摘要：Soil disturbance has been widely recognized as an important factor influencing the structure and dynamics of plant communities. Although soil reworkers were shown to increase habitat complexity and raise the risk of plant invasion, their role in regulating the interactions between native and invasive species remains unclear. We proposed that crab activities, via improving soil nitrogen availability, may indirectly affect the interactions between invasive Spartina alterniflora and native Phragmites australis and Scirpus mariqueter in salt marsh ecosystems. We conducted a two-year mesocosm experiment consisting of five species combinations, i.e., monocultures of three species and pair-wise mixtures of invasive and native species, with crabs being either present or absent for each combination. We found that crabs could mitigate soil nitrogen depletion in the mesocosm over the two years. Plant performance of all species, at both the ramet-level (height and biomass per ramet) and plot-level (density, total above-and belowground biomass), were promoted by crab activities. These plants responded to crab disturbance primarily by clonal propagation, as plot-level performance was more sensitive to crabs than ramet-level. Moreover, crab activities altered the competition between Spartina and native plants in favor of the former, since Spartina was more promoted than native plants by crab activities. Our results suggested that crab activities may increase the competition ability of Spartina over native Phragmites and Scirpus through alleviating soil nitrogen limitation.